(no subject)
Here is a rant that I started some time ago. My thoughts kind of wandered a bit. I apologize if it is too long or incoherent.
My grandfather owned a bar in a small coal mining town. Nights and weekends the miners and and locals would come in to drink, dance, watch the games and spend time together. It was an adult social interaction that got them away from the house and the kids for a little while. My parents go out to visit with church friends and play bridge. The game rotates and everyone gets a turn at hosting.
I grew up during the age of paper and pencil role playing games. As a child, it was about the adventure and the chance to be the hero. My brothers and I would put together classic dungeon crawls and see how powerful we could make ourselves. As we got older, my brothers and friends outgrew the games and moved on. I grew with the games and moved the adventures from the realm of wargaming into the realm of storytelling. The games became less about how big and bad I could make my character and how big and bad a baddie I could fight, and became more about what issues a character could overcome.
The story became the central focus of the night. I found a few friends who shared my feelings and the RPG became the preferred adult social interaction of my circle of friends. We did not go to the bar for drinks nor did we get together for cards. We felt like we were going back to the days when the tribe gathered around the fire and was entertained by the storyteller/bard/troubador. Only for us, the stories were interactive. One person started the tale and the rest of us worked together to develope the plot. Many times the stories went in directions that the original storyteller never thought it would go.
In the meantime, technology has taken the wargaming RPG to new levels. Players use computers to create characters with lots of stats and power and beautiful looks and lots of graphics. Then use the computers to interact with other players using their computers for the same thing. The MMORPG(Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) has been born and has stolen the market and the younger, more tech savvy players. The problem IMHO is that story content for most players has been reduced to that which is provided by the game developers. I have met very few players who spend any time actually talking/chatting about stories in game. Mostly, it is all technical/tactical chat.
I miss the interactive nature of storytelling.
Now, I will be the first to admit that my typing skills are not up to keeping up with both roll-playing(as in dice/random number generators) and role-playing at the same time, but there is at least one group of players that I have been with regularly lately that makes an effort(and patiently puts up with my shortcomings).
The other thing that makes me fond of my gaming group is that, in addition to some in-character chatter while we play, we also have several players that also write stories about the characters. While there is one writer in particular that forms the core of the storyline involved, the rest of us can also write our fictions that interweave with the main story. Everyone, I would hope, that is interested can post a fiction about their characters, which in turn inspires others to post their stories.
Anyway, this has become less of a rant and more of a ramble. Allow me to summarize by saying that while I feel that in some ways the internet, technology, computers and MMORPG's have stifled storytelling in favor of graphics and easy play, I still enjoy playing and have 'met' some interesting new friends. People that I would never have met without technology and the internet because they live too far away . I hope that we can continue to have fun both in game and tossing stories/ideas around.
My grandfather owned a bar in a small coal mining town. Nights and weekends the miners and and locals would come in to drink, dance, watch the games and spend time together. It was an adult social interaction that got them away from the house and the kids for a little while. My parents go out to visit with church friends and play bridge. The game rotates and everyone gets a turn at hosting.
I grew up during the age of paper and pencil role playing games. As a child, it was about the adventure and the chance to be the hero. My brothers and I would put together classic dungeon crawls and see how powerful we could make ourselves. As we got older, my brothers and friends outgrew the games and moved on. I grew with the games and moved the adventures from the realm of wargaming into the realm of storytelling. The games became less about how big and bad I could make my character and how big and bad a baddie I could fight, and became more about what issues a character could overcome.
The story became the central focus of the night. I found a few friends who shared my feelings and the RPG became the preferred adult social interaction of my circle of friends. We did not go to the bar for drinks nor did we get together for cards. We felt like we were going back to the days when the tribe gathered around the fire and was entertained by the storyteller/bard/troubador. Only for us, the stories were interactive. One person started the tale and the rest of us worked together to develope the plot. Many times the stories went in directions that the original storyteller never thought it would go.
In the meantime, technology has taken the wargaming RPG to new levels. Players use computers to create characters with lots of stats and power and beautiful looks and lots of graphics. Then use the computers to interact with other players using their computers for the same thing. The MMORPG(Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) has been born and has stolen the market and the younger, more tech savvy players. The problem IMHO is that story content for most players has been reduced to that which is provided by the game developers. I have met very few players who spend any time actually talking/chatting about stories in game. Mostly, it is all technical/tactical chat.
I miss the interactive nature of storytelling.
Now, I will be the first to admit that my typing skills are not up to keeping up with both roll-playing(as in dice/random number generators) and role-playing at the same time, but there is at least one group of players that I have been with regularly lately that makes an effort(and patiently puts up with my shortcomings).
The other thing that makes me fond of my gaming group is that, in addition to some in-character chatter while we play, we also have several players that also write stories about the characters. While there is one writer in particular that forms the core of the storyline involved, the rest of us can also write our fictions that interweave with the main story. Everyone, I would hope, that is interested can post a fiction about their characters, which in turn inspires others to post their stories.
Anyway, this has become less of a rant and more of a ramble. Allow me to summarize by saying that while I feel that in some ways the internet, technology, computers and MMORPG's have stifled storytelling in favor of graphics and easy play, I still enjoy playing and have 'met' some interesting new friends. People that I would never have met without technology and the internet because they live too far away . I hope that we can continue to have fun both in game and tossing stories/ideas around.